Daily Delights
I had tried multiple variants around MyToday after the SMS service had to shut down a decade ago because of the increase in SMS pricing. There was MyToday Mobs (SMS groups), MyToday mobile portal and MyToday Store (paid SMS subscriptions). All of them failed. For some reason, the “MyToday” word stayed with me – it evokes something that is personal and current. I kept imagining different kinds of consumer services with that name. And that is how the current MyToday idea came to life – merging the microcontent subscriptions idea with email as a delivery channel.
MyToday in its latest avatar is a 2-sided platform – publishers and subscribers. And it is free for both. What binds them together is permission – subscribers voluntarily opting in to content from publishers. Publishers can be media companies, FMCG brands, pharma companies, consumer electronics manufacturers or even political parties – anyone with a message that can be made into small capsules that would be of interest to recipients.
The “free” part for brands is an innovation – no one offers communications free for enterprises. Netcore is perhaps the only email service provider globally who can do this – because of its email experience combined with the lowest operating costs. This is a way to make email more inviting and exciting for businesses and their present and future customers. My hope is that this will open up new vistas for Netcore globally – and help us connect with businesses for their regular email communications also.
MyToday is an experiment – let’s see if it works. It has to spread virally for it to succeed. I will need to build both sides – the publishers and the subscribers. I have started with a small team that publishes content on 20+ channels to begin with. Hopefully, this can interest enough subscribers to get the flywheel going.
For me, the four alluring elements of MyToday are:
- Push: content is delivered to the inbox – there is no need to visit multiple sites to consume it
- Microcontent: each message is short and to the point, and thus can be consumed is just a few seconds
- Curation: each micron is chosen and crafted by a person, rather than aggregation with little regard to what may be important or interesting
- Variety: multiple options available in a single place, rather than having to go to different sites to discover interesting content
What I like is that I can now stay updated without having to worry about the low signal-to-noise ratio on other sites and channels. I know the most important news at a glance twice a day. I like the thoughtfulness of the daily quote. I am discovering my love for poetry, and learning to like Hindi kavitas. My hope is that each of us will discover something we like – and over time, it becomes a habit. Like MyToday SMS once was.
Tomorrow: Part 5
